OffRoaderX

It sounds like you are connecting to a repeater. If not, then, you're doing it wrong.

maybe if we knew what the problem was, or if you left any hint about what you are having trouble with, someone would actually be able to help.. But, I guess we'll never know..

Don't be mean, and if you are insinuating that the ghost antenna functions as an antenna the same as a dummy-load, you would be very, very wrong.

Bigger and higher/above any (metal) obstructions will always be optimal... But unless you are trying to bounce your signal off the moon - ie; you are just talking with your friends on the road and/or using repeaters within 5, 10, 20 miles or so, I would question whether swapping out the antenna and having to fold it up/down all the time would be worth the money or the hassle. TL;dr: If you are some kind of radio dork that obsessively requires every tiny maximum bit of performance, whether or not you'll ever notice, and at any expense, then get the bigger antenna. If however you are a normal person that just needs to talk with your group while traveling, then your Ghost antenna is just fine.

NO! i = INVERTED, N = NORMAL By default, unless otherwise specified, a DCS/DTC/DPL tone is always NORMAL (N) .

Ahh yes.. Now I remember. I had a couple of H8s but gave them away. So then, to set up your repeater, whilst in GMRS mode, choose the correct Repeater Channel, which I believe for 462.600 will be Channel #25, go into the menus and find the TX/Transmit Tone option (you may have to resort to the user-manual), and select your DPL116 from the list - (it might be listed as DTC), save it, and you're done! You can (and should) ignore the OUTPUT (aka RX) tone for now, as that is only for confusing the n00bs..

The H8 is a H.A.M. radio - will that thing even transmit on GMRS frequencies?

THIS A.I. would! -> A.I. NotARubicon

yes, i have an idea: You're doing it wrong. Are you on the correct repeater-channel, and did you add the necessary tone to access that specific repeater? (my guess is two no's..)

Yeeap... Hackin radios is risky bidness!

I gave-away my DB-25G a long time ago, but when you do a factory-reset, does that not return it to the factory original image?

Everyone should be forced to watch this:

In my GMRS group it serves a very important purpose and is very necessary. If that makes you sad, you are free to go listen to a different channel while we are all transmitting our MDC-squawks.

You buy a ham or LMR radio instead of a GMRS radio, use the "talk around" feature, or transmit on the shared simplex channel.

First of off: I dont know what "to wit" means.. Second of all: forget about the RX/Downlink tones. The Uplink will be the Transmit/TX tone that you will need - it will either be CTCSS or DTC/DPL - since there is no crossover between the numbers, 233.6 can only be one or the other (i would use Google to look it up for you.. but, i dont want to), so just go through the list for CTCSS and if you dont see 233.6, then it must be a DTC/DPL tone and it will be in that list on the radio.

Yes, try to get more farz apart. If that fails, try removing the RX tones on both radios.

How far apart are the two radios from each other when you are testing?

The Sad-H.A.M. gene often presents itself as someone that loves to talk for no other reason than just hearing themself talk. Sometimes called "long talkers", they just.. talk.. and keep talking. When a person presenting this gene is on a GMRS repeater they have either been rejected by their own kind, they are trying to disguise themselves as normal people, or they are simply "latent Sad-H.A.M.s". Source: DSM-5 319 F79

That's how you can tell its an echo-chamber. Anyway - back on topic: On MY repeater, and the club-repeater that we used to have, we had ONE rule: NO discussion of religion or politics. The reason is because everyone knows that nothing good can ever come of it - NOBODY's mind will suddenly be changed, and generally (99% of the time) it just degenerates into name calling/anger/stupidity/ranting - 100% of the time nothing constructive comes out of it. On my repeater when this occurs the repeater gets put into what we call "F-Off mode" - which is a nice way of saying it gets remotely powered-off.

Those echo-chamber repeaters are the best!

They are obviously very fiscally responsible and realized that the Baofeng does everything they need at an excellent price-point and it would be foolish to spend more money for something with less capabilities..

Make sure the mics are plugged in all the way - when you think its plugged in all the way, push even harder. IF after ensuring that they are plugged-in all the way, they are still not working, then my guess is they are either not compatible or defective.

He can't find his way back to the forum..

I assume you mean the dummy load AND your power meter? or are you relying on what the internal meter of the radio says (if it has one?)

You should hook up your power meter to see if anything is coming out of the radio, and how much.